No one will remember such "men"; they will die alone, and their lineage will...

No one will remember such “men”; they will die alone, and their lineage will die with them.

My mother’s ancestors walked from Frisia to Russia to settle the Volga River Valley and get tax-free land from Catherine the Great. Later, they sailed from Russia to England on a small, rotten sailboat so that they could go to America and settle the frontier.

My father’s ancestors were war chiefs, nobility, and kings. They fought and killed their way to the top, besting any and all on-comers until the French Revolution killed most of them.

My line did not breed cowards. I will die old and satisfied, surrounded by my sons and their sons and their sons, the head of a new dynasty.

The family called their rotten sailboat “The Black Ship” because it was full of black mold. At the time, it was the only ship available for them; Russia was not well supplied, and there was nothing to buy.

They sailed around the Russian coast, past China, India, Arabia, Africa, Portugal, and England, where they sold the ship for scrap. None of the children survived the voyage. ☠

I know all this because they kept a detailed journal of their voyages and family life for 400 years.